Preparation of photogravure copy and the like



Jan. 12,1932." E. s. BALLARD PREPARATION OF PHOTOGRAVURE COPY AND THE LIKE Original Filed Nov. 9, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. ERNES TJIBALLARD.

Jan. 12, 1932. s, BALLARD 1,841,274

PREPARATION OF PHOTOGRAVURE COPY AND THE LIKE Original Filed Nov. 9, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. l finzawifla/ 3, ya/Mm ATTORNEYS.

Patented Jan. 12, 1932 UNITED STATES ERNEST s. remap, ornunnn, earn-om PREPARATION 0] PHOTOGRAVUBE COPY AND THE m Application filed November 9, 1926, Serial No. 147,241. Renewed Kay 8, 1989.

This invention relates to the preparation of copy for photogravure and like purposes. It applies to the so-called .rotogravure or rotary-photogravure fields, and when the term photogravure is used herein, it is 1ntended to apply to all related uses. The term.

copy is intended to apply to both negative and positive plates or films, which directly or indirectly result in the final plates employedto print the desired matter. Such printed matter usually consists of a photograph accompanied bya decoratlve effect and certain type matter. The object of this invention is to produce a photogravure negative or positive copy particularly the latter, whereby locallzed control of tone values, opacity, and transparency in any desired area, restricted or otherwise, is fully at the optlon and control of the operator, eliminating at the same time painting out, patching, strippmg 1n, or blockm out.

l ln the present stage of the art, positives are commonly made by exposing a sensitlzed plate in a camera to light rays pro ected through a negative placed at the proper distance in .front of the lens of the camera, and between the lens and the source of illumination, which is frequently apiece of 'whlte paper covering the copy board of the camera and illuminated by are lamps placed on each side of said camera. Where this method is employed it is necessary, in order to secure transparent borders or other areas on the positive, to render corresponding portions of the negative opaque by painting out with opaque materials. Any type matter or text that is to accompany the positive must be made separately, either by photographing on a separate plate, or by imprinting u on celluloid or other transparent material. aid type matter and picture positives are subsequently assembled upon one plate of glass in what is commonly known as a makeup op eration. Cementing, stripping, in, patching and adjusting of said type matter and pictures, are necessary in order to make a properly assembled and correctly registeredgrouping of type matter, art work, and pictures for the printingdown upon the carbon tissue or sensitive gelatine which is subsequently transferred to the copper surface for the etchingoperation.

My new and improved method, together with mechanism for its operation, as described herein, not-only provides a means of placing all type matter, pictures, and art work u on a single sensitlzed plate by a photograp ic operation, but also enables the o erator to exercise complete control over t e transparency or density of any portion of said plate in the operation of producing the single positive that is to consist of type matter, art work, and photographic ositives.

Thus by my process and mec anism the type matter may be maintained at one degree of density, the surrounding areas may e kept absolutely transparent, and adjoining or intermingled pictures may have an entirely different degree of opacity and tone, all at the option of the operator and as desired by him; all of which is made possible without laborious painting, patching, strippin in, or blocking out.

It wil be appreciated that with such control it is possible for the operator to make the density of the type matter no greater than the density of the deepest shadows of the pictures. As a result, in the final printing-down on the carbon tissue the depth of elatine representing the type matter will be t e same as that representing the shadows of the pic- .tures; and as a consequence, type matter and pictures may be etched in one operation.

My method of procedure, and the apparatus employed, will be the better understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which I a Fig. .1 shows a vertical central sectional.

view of a form of apparatus suitable for practicing my method e Fig. 2 shows a perspective view-of the box or .holder for the lass plate which carries the copy, the plate 1n this instance being one suitable for carrying type matter;

Fig. 3 shows a similar view of the box with a glass plate in the front thereof, fitted with photographic matter. Referring to the drawings, 1 is a box', painted black on the inside, or otherwise through the same.

lined with light-absorbing material. A. source of illumination under control of the operator is provided at 2. The box is grooved at 3 and 4 to recelve a sheet ofglass, which can he slipped into place or readily removed through a slot 5, being so designed that when thrust into place it abuts against the bottom side of the box, thereby always taking the same position, or registering.

' At 6 is a photo raphic camera, carrying a sensitive plate or m 7 The camera lens 1s indicated at 8.

The operation is as follows Art work and type matter are inscribed or printed upon translucent paper, suitable space being left for the photographic pictures. From this translucent pa er a negative is made, either by contact printing or in a camera,-or by any one of numerous ways in which such a negative can be produced. This negative is thereupon mounted upon a sheet of glass 11 (Fig. 2) that will slide into the grooves 3 and 4 of box 1 and reg1ster as heretofore described.

With the negative in place and camera 6 properly in focus, lens 8 being uncovered, the operator makes an exposure of type matter and art work upon the sensitized plate 7, by causing light to be produced at the source of illumination, 2. Density of the impression upon the sensitive plate 7 will depend upon the duration of the illumination at 2, which is back of the negative and projects its rays tive plate surrounding the type-matter and art work will be unaffected,

Following this exposure, the operator covers the lens 8, removes the negative and glass from the front of the box, and roceeds with the second operation, viz., the p otographing of the pictures upon the sensitive plate 7, said pictures to occupy spaces reserved for them in the layout, and to register properly with the t pe matter and art work already photograp ed by the operation just described.

As the first step in this secondary operation, photographic negatives are made upon sensitive paper, either by contact printing, or in a'camera, proceeding by the usual copying methods extensively practiced over a period of many years.

Upon a piece of red glass 12 (Fig. 3) or similar-transparent material of non-actinie tint or'eolor, a dummy layout is sketched in chalk or 'other readily removed substance, and the paper negatives are placed on the glass on the spaces reserved for the pictures. Having stripped these pictures into position, all chalk and other foreign materials are removed from the surrounding non-actinic colored glass. .In place of the sheet of glass colored or tinted a non-actinic color or tint, I

may employ a sheet of glam backed with dull Those areas on the sensiblack material that absorbs but will not reblack box and are absorbed, or such rays as i are reflected back into the camera 6 comeback as non-actinic rays and have no effect upon the sensitive plate. I

Thus, only those areas corresponding to the pictures or paper negatives are affected, and impressed in a photographic manner. All surrounding areas, whlch may contain more or less type matter and art work as photographed by the first operation, remain unchanged. In the second operation the density of the pictures is at the will of the operator, and depends upon the amount of light that is reflected from the paper negatives, and the extent of the exposure.

It will be appreciated that these two operations, as heretofore described, are interdependent, and provide a means of making an exposure upon certain sections of a sensitized plate, reserving other sections for a subsequent operation. Said reserved section is unaffected by the first operation; and, in a like manner, the first portions utilized remain unaffected by the second operation, all of which is accomplished without paintingout, employment of masks, or other common, slow, and unsatisfactory processes.

If it is desired to secure negatives rather than positives in the camera, with dee ly opaque ground surrounding the objects pliotographed, the procedure is as follows: The pictures or objects to be photographed are mounted upon a transparent or translucent sheet of glass, and placed in the groove of the dark box 1. While the objects to be pho- 'tographed are illuminated from the front by the lamps 9 and 10, they are at the same time illuminatedfrom behind by the source of light 2. Thus the preponderance of illumination coming from behind the objects to be photographed can be made greatly in excess of that reflected from the surfaces confronting the lens of the copying camera. The result will be a deeply opaque ground with the photographic density of the objects themselves controlled by the duration and intensity of the illumination from lamps 9 and 10.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A method of preparing copy for the purfrom photographs or images actinic light, and causing the background or mounting upon which such photographs or. images are mounted to absorb the reater part of the illumination directed at t em, so as to reflect only non-actinic light.

2. A method of making positives, negatives, or transparencies for the photogravure or rotary photogravure process, consisting of photographing type matter and art work upon a sensitized plate without affecting adjacent areas, and subsequently, by a second operation, photographing pictures upon said adjacent areas to any desired degree of density, tone gradation, and opacity, without affecting the areas exposed in a photographic manner by the first'operation.

3. A method of combining upon a sensitized plate pictures, t pe matter and art Work, as employed in t e rotary photogravureprocess, which consists of exposing certain areas on the plate for type matter and art work, and reserving upon said plate, in

proper register, areas upon which pictures may be photographed by a subsequent operation, wlthout encroaching photographically or mechanically upon the areas occupied by the type matter and art work.

4. A method of combining upon a sensitive plate pictures, type matter, and art work, as

or roto avure copy, the method which consists o exposing ty' e matter and art work upon a sensitized p ate for photographlng, and subse uently registering a picture upon the same p ate to conform to a (predetermined lay-out between the picture an the type matter and art work. i

8. In the preparation of photogravure copy, a method which consists in'mounting an opaque picture or object having a reflective surface on a trans arent background disposed in front of a lig t absorbing means and photographing said picture or object and saidbackground under the action of light projected from a source or sources located so that most of the light dpassing through said transparent backgroun is absorbed and so that substantially all of the remainder reflected from said background is non-actinic light. 7

ERNEST S. BALLARD.

emploi ed in the rotary. photogravureprocess, w ich consists of exposing certain areas on the plate for type matter and art work, and using certain rescribed areas for such photography, wit out encroaching .mechanically or photographically upon other areas reserved for pictures to be impressed upon such plate by photogra hic means.

5. In the preparation of otogravure or rotogravure copy, a metho which consists of combining upon one plate or film photographed type matter and art work of any esired degree of densit surrounding said type matter and art work y fully transparent areas, photographing pictures upon other prescribe areas by a separate photographic operatlon, separate from the first operation and controlling the density of said pictures Hide-- pendently of the density of the type matter and art work.

6. In the preparation of photogravure copy, a method consisting of preparing a negative of the decorations and type matter desired, placing this negative on a transparent plate in re ister with a camera, illuminating the same rom behind, exposing a sensitized plate to the negative, removing the negative and introducing in the same registered position a negative of an object to ac-' company said decorationsand type matter, arranging said object upon a screen of nonactinic value and in register with said decorations and type matter, and illuminating said non-actinic screen from in front.

' 7. In the preparation of photogravure 

